Donald Trump hails mammoth Saudi Arabia deals on visit
Donald Trump became the first US president in 25 years to meet a Syrian president, where the two held brief talks ahead of a larger gathering of Gulf leaders.
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Donald Trump became the first US president in 25 years to meet a Syrian leader after he offered sanctions relief in hopes of offering a new path to the war-battered country.
Mr Trump, in Riyadh on the first state visit of his second term, met with Ahmed al-Sharaa, an erstwhile Islamist guerrilla turned interim president after the December of longtime strongman Bashar al-Assad.
The two held brief talks ahead of a larger gathering of Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia during Trump’s tour of the region, a White House official said.
No US president has met a Syrian leader since Bill Clinton saw Hafez al-Assad, Bashar’s father, in Geneva in 2000 in a failed effort to persuade him to make peace with Israel.
Trump announced on Tuesday that he was lifting “brutal and crippling” Assad-era sanctions on Syria in response to demands from Sharaa’s allies in Turkey and Saudi Arabia – in his latest step out of tune with US ally Israel.
Trump said it was Syrians’ “time to shine” and that easing sanctions would “give them a chance at greatness”.
Syrians celebrated the news, with dozens of men, women and children gathering in Damascus’s Umayyad Square.
“My joy is great. This decision will definitely affect the entire country positively. Construction will return, the displaced will return, and prices will go down,” said Huda Qassar, a 33-year-old English-language teacher.
The Syrian foreign ministry called Trump’s decision a “pivotal turning point” that would help bring stability.
The United States imposed sweeping restrictions on financial transactions with Syria during the brutal civil war and made clear it would use sanctions to punish anyone involved in reconstruction so long as Assad remained in power without accountability for atrocities.
Trump gave no indication that the United States would remove Syria from its blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism -- a designation dating back to 1979 over support to Palestinian militants that severely impedes investment.
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US, SAUDI ARABIA INK MASSIVE DEAL
Saudi Arabia promised billions of dollars in deals with the United States from defence to artificial intelligence as it threw a lavish welcome for President Donald Trump on the first state visit of his second term.
The Saudis escorted Air Force One into the kingdom with fighter jets before bringing out long-stretching guards of honour and sending flag-waving cavalry to accompany Mr Trump’s motorcade to the palace.
Under imposing chandeliers, Trump welcomed a promise by Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, for $600 billion (A$929bn) in investment and quipped that it should be $1 trillion.
“We have the biggest business leaders in the world here today and they’re going to walk away with a lot of cheques,” Trump told the prince.
For “the United States, it’s probably two million jobs that we’re talking about,” Trump said.
The White House said that Saudi Arabia would buy nearly $142 billion (A$220bn) in weapons in what it described as the largest-ever weapons deal, although Trump in his first term trumpeted a larger, longer-term figure.
The White House said that Saudi company DataVolt will invest $20 billion (A$31bn) in artificial intelligence-related sites in the United States, while tech firms including Google will invest in both countries - welcome news for Saudi Arabia which has long faced restrictions in US advanced technology.
With cameras rolling, a lengthy procession of Saudi royalty and business figures waited their turn to shake hands with President Trump and the crown prince, including Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and close adviser to Mr Trump, who made a rare appearance in a suit.
The US leader will head later in the week to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, fellow oil-rich Arab monarchies with longstanding ties to the United States - and to President Trump.
In choosing The Gulf for his first major tour, the 78-year-old billionaire is again bypassing traditional presidential stops among Western allies, some of which have been unnerved by his norms-shattering diplomacy.
Eight years ago, Mr Trump also chose Saudi Arabia for his first overseas trip - when he posed with a glowing orb and participated in a sword dance.
Mr Trump’s embrace of the Saudis contrasts with a more hesitant initial approach by former president Joe Biden, who had vowed to punish the crown prince after US intelligence found that he ordered the murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
Mr Trump reminisced with the 39-year-old crown prince over their first meeting, saying he was “so impressed with this young guy who was very wise beyond his years”.
Since Khashoggi’s gruesome killing, Saudi Arabia has worked aggressively to change its image, from easing restrictions on women to diversifying from oil to new areas such as artificial intelligence.
The country has also increasingly exercised diplomatic clout, serving as a venue for the United States to pursue talks with Ukraine and Russia.
Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have also sought outsized international roles, with the Qataris serving as a mediator along with the United States and Egypt in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Jon Alterman, senior vice president at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said that for President Trump, The Gulf “is his happy place”.
The leaders will “flatter him and not criticise him. And they’ll treat his family members as past and future business partners,” he said.
Qatar offered a luxury Boeing aircraft for Mr Trump to refurbish as Air Force One and then keep after he leaves the White House.
Mr Trump’s Democratic rivals have called the gift blatant corruption. Mr Trump has hit back that the deal was “very public and transparent”.
An ultimate prize, pushed both by Mr Trump and Mr Biden, has been to persuade Saudi Arabia, home of Islam’s holiest sites, to take the landmark step of recognising Israel.
But Israel normalisation appears remote as Riyadh insists that a Palestinian state be established first.
TRUMP CALLS ON SAUDI ARABIA TO RECOGNISE ISRAEL
President Trump called on Saudi Arabia to recognise Israel during a speech to the oil-rich kingdom’s leaders on Tuesday — saying “you’ll be greatly honouring me” by doing so.
Mr Trump frequently referred to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman by name during his speech as the country’s de facto ruler watched from the front row.
“With the historic Abraham Accords that we’re so proud of, all the momentum was aimed at peace, aimed very successfully,” Mr Trump said.
“It’s been an amazing thing, the Abraham Accords, and it’s my fervent hope, wish, and even my dream that Saudi Arabia — a place I have such respect for, especially over the last fairly short period of time, what you’ve been able to do — but will soon be joining the Abraham Accords.”
“I think it’ll be a tremendous tribute to your country, and it will be something that’s really going to be very important for the future of the future of the Middle East. I took a risk in doing them, and they’ve been an absolute bonanza for the countries that have joined the Biden administration did nothing for four years.”
‘TO ZERO’: TRUMP THREATENS IRAN
President Trump used the speech delivered in Saudi Arabia to threaten Iran with “massive maximum pressure” and “drive Iranian oil exports to zero” if Tehran doesn’t agree to a new nuclear deal.
“The time is right now for them to choose is right now — we don’t have a lot of time,” Mr Trump said
US INFLATION UNEXPECTEDLY DROPS, STOCKS HIGHER
US consumer inflation cooled slightly in April, but analysts warned prices could spike in the coming months as businesses come to grips with President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
The data covers the early days of Mr Trump’s new levies against most countries - including steep duties on China - which spooked financial markets and raised fears of a spike in prices.
The US president has since reversed some of the duties and paused others, helping to soothe nervous investors.
The consumer price index (CPI) eased to 2.3 percent in April from a year ago, a tick below the 2.4 percent figure recorded in March, the US Labor Department said in a statement.
“Inflation is down thanks to President Trump!” White House Policy Communications Director Jacki Kotkiewicz wrote on X in a message that was reposted by a White House account.
In a statement, the Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren took a different view on the data.
“Consumers and businesses will feel little relief from President Trump folding to Xi Jinping and are bracing for supply chain disruptions and even empty shelves,” she said.
The April CPI release was the smallest 12-month increase since February 2021, and was slightly lower than the median estimate from surveys of economists conducted by Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal.
US and European stock markets mostly rose on Tuesday as cool US inflation data reassured concerns about the economy.
DOCTORS FIND ‘NODULE’ WHILE EXAMINING JOE BIDEN
A “small nodule” has been discovered by doctors for former President Joe Biden during a prostate exam.
“In a routine physical exam a small nodule was found in the prostate which necessitated further evaluation,” a spokesperson for Mr Biden told ABC News.
The spokesperson for 82-year-old also declined to provide further detail to the New York Times.
Prostate cancer is not uncommon for men of Mr Biden’s age and if caught early, it has a good prognosis.
‘SHIFTING BLAME’: CHINA SLAMS US OVER FENTANYL CRISIS
China told the United States on Tuesday to “stop smearing and shifting blame” on the causes of its fentanyl crisis, condemning Washington’s “unreasonable” tariffs imposed over the issue.
The United States and China on Monday announced a deal to drastically reduce tit-for-tat tariffs for 90 days, an outcome Trump dubbed a “total reset”.
Under that agreement, the United States agreed to lower its tariffs on Chinese goods to 30 per cent while China will reduce its own to 10 per cent.
The US additional tariff rate remains higher than China’s because it includes a 20 per cent levy over Trump’s complaints about Chinese exports of chemicals used to make fentanyl.
The United States has seen tens of thousands of deaths related to opioids like fentanyl annually, though the latest figures — for 2023 — showed a decrease from the prior year.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Monday that “both the Chinese and United States agreed to work constructively together on fentanyl and there is a positive path forward there as well.”
Asked Tuesday about prospects for talks on the issue, Beijing reiterated its position that it is not responsible for the opioid addiction epidemic in the United States.
“Fentanyl is the United States’ issue, it is not China’s issue,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.
“The United States has ignored China’s goodwill and imposed unreasonable fentanyl tariffs on China, seriously disturbing co-operation between China and the US in the area of drug control and seriously harming China’s interests,” he said.
“If the US really wants to co-operate with China, it should stop smearing and shifting blame onto China and engage in dialogue in an equal, respectful and mutually beneficial way,” he said.
Washington has long accused Beijing of turning a blind eye to the fentanyl trade, something China denies.
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Originally published as Donald Trump hails mammoth Saudi Arabia deals on visit
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